1. Field of the Invention
The present invention deals with fixed-length queues in computer hardware and software. More specifically, the present invention deals with techniques for managing fixed-length queues when they become full.
2. Art Background
Many systems use fixed-length queues to buffer data between a data producer and a data consumer. If the consumer is not able to consume data as fast as the producer places it in the queue, or is unable for some reason to take data from the queue or empty the queue, the queue can become full. The queue management system, hardware or software, must have policies in place for dealing with queue overflow situations.
Traditional approaches to queue overflow include techniques such as overwriting the last item, dropping the oldest item, or discarding the newest item. The choice is usually made based on the needs of the application and the presumed importance of new data versus old data.